Munro Partners Acquires Shares of 475,542 Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Munro Partners bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 475,542 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $83,805,000. Alphabet makes up 2.6% of Munro Partners’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. raised its stake in Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 37.9% in the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. S&T Bank PA lifted its position in Alphabet by 40.2% during the second quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in Alphabet by 77.6% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 348 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total value of $168,036.00. Following the sale, the director owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,264,750.96. The trade was a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. This represents a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 222,750 shares of company stock valued at $60,496,098. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Roth Capital boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Citic Securities boosted their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, HSBC upped their price objective on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.22.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $308.22 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $328.83. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $284.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $230.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.